아이팟과 m플레이어 디자인에 나타난 트렌드 형성과정 연구

The terms of trend, life-style, and taste are originated from the notion of 'fashion'. In modern times, the proliferation of material culture and maturation of consumer society play important role for creating phenomenal evidences of those terms. This study analyzes the establishment, changes, and dynamics of those terms and relationships between them. Based on theoretical reviews of references and experimental framework, a comparative case study is practiced for the portable digital audio products designed by Apple and RainCom to analyze the creation and interaction of taste, life-style, fashion, and trend. The notable aspect of both I-Pod and m-Player are the excellences of design, giving critical design role to comply embedded tastes and lifestyle of consumers. They have high level of design quality in terms of formal simplicity, product applications, and user interactivity. In addition to the merits, each case has its own figurative personality, and high quality of fashionable wearables. While I-pod enjoys wide range of color application and harmony, m-player is associated with formal simplicity and nostalgic feeling of playing toys of children years. In terms of usability, I-pod provokes an intuitive control, then m-player encourages playful mind and emotional fun of user by turning the ears of 'Mickey Mouse'. Both cases successfully combine personal tastes and individual idea, life-style, and futuristic fashion into creating design, observing the trend of 'digital divergence'. Then, again, it is realistic to say the cases should be one of the best practice of recognition on consumers' taste and life-style. Both cases are very good example of promoting product preference celebrating design innovation, and creation of fashion and trend setting. Through the theoretical analysis and case studies, this research could draw a good understanding of the relationship between the role of taste, fashion, life-style, and trend, relating design efforts.